Dalit leader’s murder: SC panel sends notice to state
SHIMLA : The National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) has issued a notice to the state government asking for a report on the murder of the Scheduled Castes (SC) leader and social activist Kedar Singh Jindan, who was killed in Sirmaur district’s Bakras village a week ago.
Jindan’s death had triggered protests in region.
The commission had also sought a detailed report from the Sirmaur police. “We had prepared a detailed report on the murder and the commission has been apprised about the details,” said superintendent of police (SP) Rohit Malpani.
The alleged murder of Jindan, who had contested elections to the state assembly in 2017 from Shillai on the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) ticket and had secured 463 votes, had triggered protests in the region demanding immediate arrest of the accused.
The police had constituted a special investigation team (SIT) to probe the killing of Jindan, who was allegedly beaten up and later ran over by a sports utility vehicle (SUV) in Bakras village on September 7.
The police initially thought it to be an accident, but later registered a murder case and arrested two persons, Gopal and Jaiparkash, for allegedly killing Jindan. Jindan had also been raising issues of caste discrimination and irregularities in the preparation of the below poverty line list.
Jindan had convened a press conference in Shimla two months before his death where he alleged that six affluent families in Bakras panchayat with assets running in cores were also registered under the belowpoverty line category.
He had alleged that records were forged and influential persons had availed BPL benefits to avail government jobs.
SOCIAL ACTIVISTS VISIT JINDAN'S VILLAGE
Meanwhile, a seven-member team of human rights and social activists visited Jindan's native Paab village on Friday to ascertain the reasons leading to his murder.
The team expressed concern that the police had not responded adequately to the repeated threats received by Jindan from different members of the community who were irked at his work.
"Last year too, there was an attack on Jindan at Sattaun, where he was pulled out of a bus and beaten up badly by the people, who were enraged that he supported an inter-caste marriage in the area. "
“Jindan’s family informed us that he was left buried in a heap of sand and left there to die,” said Manshi Asher, human rights defender. “Our observations from various discussions make it obvious that this was not just an incident of personal vendetta (as is being claimed in some media reports), but one of a planned murder, ” said Asher.